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Paul di Resta
British |birthplace = Uphall, West Lothian, Scotland, UK |years = - |teams = Force India |first gp = 2011 Australian Grand Prix |enteries = 58 (58 starts) |wins = 0 |pole positions = 0 |fastest laps = 0 |podiums = 0 |career points = 121 |final race = 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix}}Paul di Resta (born 16 April 1986 in Livingston, Scotland) is a British former DTM and Formula 3 Euroseries champion, who competed in Formula One from to for Force India. Biography Pre-Formula One Di Resta started his career in karting, racing in various competitive series of karts from 1994 until 2002. In 2001 he won the British JICA Championship. He stepped up to single-seaters at the end of 2002, when he competed in the British Formula Renault Winter Series. He raced in British Formula Renault full-time in 2003 with the Eurotek Motorsport team, finishing seventh in the standings with one race win. He switched to Manor Motorsport for 2004, finishing third in the championship standings with four wins. He also entered some races of Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 with the Manor team. Di Resta switched to the Formula Three Euroseries with Manor Motorsport in 2005, finishing tenth in the standings. For 2006 he moved to the ASM Formule 3 team, winning the championship with five wins, beating team mate and future Formula One World Drivers Champion, Sebastian Vettel. Di Resta also won the 2006 BP Ultimate Masters at Circuit Park Zandvoort. In 2007, di Resta switched from single-seaters to race in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) touring car racing series, for Mercedes. In the championship he finished 5th. Di Resta was the highest driver in the standings to drive a non-2007 car. His performances earned him a 2008 Mercedes C Klasse for the 2008 season, in which he won two races and finishing second in the points, four points behind eventual champion Timo Scheider of Audi. In 2009, he finished third overall, behind Scheider and compatriot Gary Paffett. In 2010, he won three races in a row on the way to winning the championship. Formula One In 2009 di Resta tested for the McLaren Formula One team, and was in the frame for a drive with the Force India team due to the teams' shared engine supplier, Mercedes-Benz. However, Force India chose to retain Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil, with Vitantonio Liuzzi as reserve driver. 2010 In December 2009, with Fisichella having moved to Ferrari and Liuzzi being promoted to the race team, di Resta took part in a test with the team at the Jerez circuit alongside J. R. Hildebrand. At the Autosport International show in January 2010, he was said to have been close to securing a deal to become the team's test and reserve driver for the 2010 season. The deal was duly announced on 2 February. Di Resta made his Formula One race meeting début at the 2010 Australian Grand Prix, where he took part in the first free practice session in place of Sutil. Following completion of the session, Di Resta was placed 11th. He then drove in the first practice sessions of all the following races up to the Monaco Grand Prix, where he did not take part. He resumed driving for the team at the European Grand Prix and a further 3 Grands Prix after that. 2011 Di Resta joined Adrian Sutil in the Force India Formula One racing team for the 2011 season, replacing Vitantonio Liuzzi. He scored his first championship point at his first race, the Australian Grand Prix, after both Saubers were disqualified. This was followed by another 10th place in Malaysia. Di Resta was running fifth in Canada until a collision with Nick Heidfeld left him with a damaged car and a drive-through penalty, and later crashed out of the race on lap 67. He qualified sixth at Silverstone but finished 15th after a long pitstop due to a tyre mix-up. Di Resta's third points-scoring finish of the season came in Hungary, where he finished seventh in changeable conditions. In the Italian Grand Prix, di Resta finished 8th, and this was followed by a career-best sixth place finish in Singapore, ahead of team-mate Sutil, who finished eighth. Di Resta had a strong end to the season, finishing tenth in Korea, ninth in Abu Dhabi and eighth in Brazil. 2012 On 16 December 2011, it was announced that di Resta was to be retained by Force India for the 2012 season, with Nico Hülkenberg taking the place of Sutil as his team mate. He qualified 15th for the season opener in Australia and finished 10th in the race, passing Jean-Éric Vergne and Nico Rosberg on the final lap. He qualified 14th for the Malaysian Grand Prix, and finished seventh in the wet race. In Bahrain he qualified inside the top ten, having missed the second free practice session after several members of the team were caught up in a petrol bomb incident. Using a two-stop strategy he took sixth place in the race, which equalled his previous career-best result. At the European Grand Prix he was the only driver on the grid who performed a one-stop strategy and came 7th whilst his team mate, Nico Hülkenberg, finished in 5th position. At the Singapore Grand Prix, he qualified sixth and finished a career-best fourth, after the retirements of Maldonado and Hamilton. The final five races of the season resulted in only one further points score - 9th place in Abu Dhabi. 2013 On 31 January 2013, Force India confirmed di Resta would race for the team for a third consecutive season in 2013. After qualifying outside the top ten in Australia, di Resta managed to battle through into the points, finishing just behind his teammate, Adrian Sutil in eighth place. Di Resta matched his career best result in Bahrain with a fourth place, being overtaken close to the end by Lotus' Romain Grosjean, depriving the Scot of a maiden podium. He followed that up with a seventh in Spain. After six consecutive point finishes, di Resta struggled in the later part of the season as his team Force India struggled to cope with new Pirelli tyres and he recorded five consecutive retirements. On 12 December, it was announced that he would not be retained as a driver with Force India for the 2014 season. Paul di Resta 2011 Malaysia Qualify.jpg|di Resta at the 2011 Malaysian GP Jm1221se233.jpg|di Resta at the 2012 Singapore GP Helmet design Di resta 2011 helmet.gif|2011/2012 design di resta 2013 helmet.gif|2013 design Complete Formula One results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Driver failed to finish the race, but was classified as they had completed >90% of the race distance. References #https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_di_Resta #http://www.statsf1.com/en/paul-di-resta.aspx Category:British drivers Category:Force India Drivers Category:Drivers